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Color by Max for Cats Out Now: The Sound of Vintage Machines at your Fingertips

By now, most Sonic Bloom readers are probably aware that Christian Kleine aka Max for Cats has a soft spot for old analogue gear. Of course, this goes for all the flaws and shortcomings of these vintage machines as well. As Brian Eno said:

Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.

Color, the new Max for Live audio effect by Max for Cats lets you add all the vinyl noises, hiss, drive and wobble to your music to make it sound as analogue as you like. Perfect on drums, synths, keys, and full mixes of every musical genre. Its filter effects also work well in the most modern club track. Whether you are scoring a film, creating EDM or writing experimental music, Color offers a unique sonic palette to inspire your productions. Color works with live input or prerecorded audio and is easy on your CPU.

No matter if your music needs just a touch of drift and movement with a hint of saturation or if you want to mangle signals almost beyond recognition, Color is at your fingertips with a simple yet powerful control set. For full control over the sound, the colouring sections Vinyl, Wobble, Phase, Drive and EQ can be activated individually, while Dry/Wet blends the original signal with the coloured one.

Vinyl lets you add different types of vinyl noise and hiss. Wobble simulates tape fluctuations and flutter effects of of old tape machines. Phase lets your alter the phase of the incoming audio while Drive distorts in a raw analogue way. A 3 band EQ with parametric mid section helps to shape the signal while an additional gain staging is available at the output.

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Madeleine Bloom is an Ableton Certified Trainer, musician, producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer from Berlin. She studied Electroacoustic Music at the Franz Liszt Conservatory. For a few years she worked as a technical support for Ableton gaining in-depth knowledge of Ableton Live that even most CTs don't ever get. In 2012 she started Sonic Bloom and has since helped countless people on all continents with their music productions and live performances.